Method executed by user equipment and user equipment

Abstract

Provided are a method executed by a user equipment (UE) and the UE, the method executed by the UE being executed in a process of communication between the UE and a base station based on a multipath communication mode, comprising: the UE receiving an RRC reconfiguration message carrying configuration information of an indirect path from the base station, the configuration information at least comprises a UE identifier of a target UE for an indirect path; the UE starts to establish the connection with the target UE under the condition that the UE does not establish the connection with the target UE; and the UE sends an NR side link UE information message to the base station, and in the NR side link UE information message, the UE sets information in a cell sl-Destination Identity as the UE identifier of the target UE. Therefore, the UE can enable the base station to clearly determine the address information associated with the reported SL BSR MAC CE in a multi-path working mode, so that resource allocation can be properly carried out in a network, and the utilization efficiency of resources is improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication technology, and more particularly, to a method executed by a user equipment and a corresponding user equipment. Background Art

[0002] In a cell covered by a base station, a user equipment UE can communicate directly with the base station. Such a communication connection is called a direct connection (direct connection / link). The UE can also communicate with the base station through a relay UE (relayUE). This connection can be called an indirect connection (indirect connection / link) or an indirect connection. In the scenario where the relay UE communicates with the base station, the UE is called a remote UE (remoteUE).

[0003] The Remote UE can work in a mode with only an indirect connection, which can be called a single path communication mode. In addition, in order to improve the uplink and downlink transmission rates and throughput of the UE, the UE can also work in both direct connection and indirect connection modes at the same time. Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram showing the parallel working mode of direct connection and indirect connection (multi-path), that is, multi-path communication mode. Figure 1 As shown, in such a working mode, since the UE and the base station communicate through different paths, it can also be called a multi-path (multi-path) communication mode.

[0004] exist Figure 1 In the present invention, wireless communication is generally adopted between the remote UE and the base station, and between the relay UE and the base station, such as 5G NR or LTE and other communication technologies and means; while the remote UE and the relay UE can communicate based on the side link communication, or based on the WIFI communication of hotspot coverage, or can also be wired connection.

[0005] The UE can report the size of the buffer data to the base station through the SL BSR MAC CE, so that the base station can schedule / allocate appropriate SL resources to the UE for transmission to the relay UE on the indirect path.

[0006] The existing SL BSR MAC CE includes an address number (Destination Index), which is used to indicate the address associated with the BSR in the current SL BSR MAC CE. The base station can generate a corresponding address list based on the address information previously reported by the UE to determine the corresponding address. So when the UE works in a multi-path working mode, how to let the base station determine the address information associated with the reported SL BSR MAC CE is a problem that needs to be solved. Summary of the invention

[0007] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a method and user equipment executed by a user equipment, which can allow the base station to clearly report the address information associated with the SL BSR MAC CE in a multi-path working mode, so as to appropriately allocate resources in the network and improve resource utilization efficiency.

[0008] According to the present invention, a method executed by a user equipment UE is provided, which is executed during communication between the UE and a base station based on a multipath communication mode, and includes: the UE receives an RRC reconfiguration message carrying configuration information of an indirect path from the base station, and the configuration information at least includes a UE identifier of a target UE for the indirect path; the UE starts to establish a connection with the target UE without establishing a connection with the target UE; the UE sends an NR side link UE information message to the base station, and in the NR side link UE information message, the UE sets the information in the information element sl-DestinationIdentity to the UE identifier of the target UE.

[0009] In the above method, the sl-DestinationIdentity cell may be included in any one of the sl-TxResourceReqListCommRelay cell, the sl-TxResourceReqList cell, and the newly defined sl-TxResourceReqIndirect cell for an indirect path.

[0010] In the above method, it may also be that when the side link buffer status report SL BSR is triggered, the UE sends a SL BSR MAC CE to the base station, and the Destination Index contained in the SL BSR MAC CE corresponds to the address information in the information elements sl-TxResourceReqListCommRelay, sl-TxResourceReqList and sl-TxResourceReqIndirect.

[0011] In the above method, the UE may also trigger the SL BSR in any of the following circumstances: the MAC entity of the UE can obtain the SL data of any logical channel in the logical channel group associated with a certain address; the timer used to control the retransmission of the SL BSRMAC CE times out, and at least one logical channel still contains SL data to be sent; the timer used to control the periodic transmission of the SL BSR MAC CE times out.

[0012] In the above method, it may also be that the UE generates the SL BSR MAC CE when obtaining a UL-SCH resource for new transmission and the UL-SCH resource can accommodate the SL BSR MAC CE.

[0013] In the above method, the UE may also call or instruct or execute a multiplexing and combining process to generate a SL BSR MAC CE.

[0014] In the above method, the UE may also generate one or more SL BSR MAC CEs according to the address to be reported and the size of the available UL-SCH resources.

[0015] In the above method, it may also be that, when the address associated with the generated SL-BSR MAC CE is the target UE, the UE sets the Destination Index in the SL BSR MAC CE to a special value.

[0016] In the above method, the UE may also send the SL BSR MACCE on available UL-SCH resources.

[0017] In addition, according to the present invention, a user equipment is provided, comprising: a processor; and a memory storing instructions, wherein the instructions execute the method when executed by the processor.

[0018] Effects of the Invention

[0019] According to the present invention, the base station can clearly report the address information associated with the SL BSR MAC CE in a multi-path working mode, so that resources can be properly allocated in the network and the utilization efficiency of resources can be improved. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram showing a direct connection and an indirect connection working in parallel (multi-path), that is, a multi-path communication method.

[0021] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing UE-to-Network relay.

[0022] Figure 3 It is a flowchart showing a method executed by a user equipment UE according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

[0023] Figure 4 It is a flowchart showing a method executed by a user equipment UE according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

[0024] Figure 5 It is a brief structural block diagram of the user equipment involved in the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] The present invention is described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. It should be noted that the present invention should not be limited to the specific embodiments described below. In addition, for the sake of simplicity, detailed descriptions of known technologies that are not directly related to the present invention are omitted to prevent confusion in understanding the present invention.

[0026] Before the detailed description, some terms mentioned in the present invention are explained as follows. Unless otherwise specified, the terms involved in the present invention have the following meanings.

[0027] UE:User Equipment, user equipment;

[0028] NR: New Radio, a new generation of wireless technology;

[0029] LTE: Long Term Evolution, long-term evolution technology;

[0030] eLTE: Enhanced Long Term Evolution, enhanced long-term evolution technology;

[0031] RRC: Radio Resource Control, radio resource control (layer);

[0032] MAC: Medium Access Control, media access control (layer);

[0033] MAC CE: MAC Control Element, MAC control element;

[0034] SDAP: Service Data Adaptation Protocol, business data adaptation protocol;

[0035] SRAP: Sidelink Relay Adaptation Protocol, sidelink relay adaptation protocol;

[0036] RLC: Radio Link Control, wireless link layer control;

[0037] PDCP: Packet Data Convergence Protocol, packet data convergence protocol;

[0038] ADAPT: Adaptation layer, side link communication adaptation layer;

[0039] PHY: physical layer, physical layer;

[0040] RB: radio bearer, wireless bearer;

[0041] DRB: Data Radio Bearer, data radio bearer;

[0042] SRB: Signalling Radio Bearer, signaling radio bearer;

[0043] PDU: Protocol Data Unit, protocol data unit;

[0044] SDU: Service Data Unit, service data unit;

[0045] V2X: Vehicle-to-Everything, Internet of Vehicles;

[0046] NAS Non-Access-Stratum, non-access layer;

[0047] SL BSR Sidelink Buffer Status Report Sidelink Buffer Status Report

[0048] UL-SCH Uplink Shared Channel Uplink Shared Channel

[0049] IE Information Element

[0050] In the present invention, network, base station and RAN can be used interchangeably, and the network can be a long-term evolution LTE network, a new radio access technology (New RAT, NR) network, an enhanced long-term evolution eLTE network, or other networks defined in subsequent evolution versions of 3GPP.

[0051] In the present invention, the user equipment UE may refer to the NR device supporting the NR Sidelink relay function described in the background technology, or may refer to an NR device supporting the NR sidelink relay architecture, or may refer to other types of NR devices or LTE devices.

[0052] In the present invention, sidelink and PC5 can be used interchangeably, RLC channel, RLC entity and RLC bearer can be used interchangeably, and PC5 in this article is used for relay operation, so it can also be replaced by relay.

[0053] Hereinafter, a description is given of related art of the present invention.

[0054] Single path and multi-path communication

[0055] The remote UE communicates with the base station through a relay UE, which can be called an indirect connection / link or an indirect connection. The remote UE can work in a mode with only indirect connection, which can be called a single path communication mode. In this case, the primary cell (Pcell) of the relay UE is the primary cell (Pcell) of the remote UE it serves.

[0056] like Figure 1 As shown, the UE and the base station can also communicate simultaneously through direct connection and indirect connection. The UE can be configured to work in direct connection and indirect connection communication modes at the same time, and such communication mode can be called multi-path (multiple paths, MP) communication. Among them, the directly connected path can be called a direct path (direct path), and the direct path can use the Uu interface for communication; the indirect connection path can be called a relay path (relay path) or an indirect path (indirect path). On the indirect path, the remote UE communicates with the base station through the relay UE, and the relay UE and the base station can communicate using the Uu interface, and the remote UE and the relay UE can communicate using other connection methods such as PC5 connection or WIFI connection.

[0057] The path corresponding to the direct connection is a direct path, and the path corresponding to the indirect connection is an indirect path. In the case of multiple paths, the serving cell corresponding to the direct path is a primary serving cell.

[0058] It should be noted that the UE can also communicate directly with the base station, which is called direct connection, and is also a single-path working mode. The UE can only work in the direct connection mode. In this mode, since there is no relay UE, such a UE cannot be called a remote UE. In this case, the primary service cell of the UE is the service cell that the UE establishes an RRC connection with.

[0059] It can be seen that remote UE is relative to relay UE. Remote UE exists only in single-path or multi-path scenarios with relay UE. For single-path scenarios without relay UE, such as direct connection, UE cannot be remote UE.

[0060] Path addition

[0061] In order to change the communication mode of the UE from a single connection (direct) connection to a multi-path (direct connection and indirect connection) communication mode, the base station needs to provide configuration information to the UE. Based on the configuration information, the UE can establish a non-direct connection path for transmission. Such configuration information can be referred to as configuration information for adding a connection path (path addition). The operation performed by the UE after receiving the configuration information for adding a connection path (path addition) can be considered as an operation associated with adding a connection path, and such an operation may include one or more of the following operations:

[0062] Operation 1: The UE starts to establish a connection with the relay UE. Here, taking the establishment of a PC5 connection as an example, after the UE receives the configuration information for adding the connection path, the UE establishes a PC5 connection with the relay UE.

[0063] Operation 2: The UE indicates to the relay UE that the cause value (or trigger value) of the connection establishment is relay, or the cause value is relay for indirect path.

[0064] Operation 3: When or after receiving the configuration information for adding a connection path (path addition), the UE may also start a timer, which is used to manage the path addition process, referred to as T-path add. When the timer times out, it can be considered that the path addition process has failed, and the UE may start a failure report, generate information to report the path addition failure to the base station, and send it to the base station.

[0065] The configuration information for adding a connection path (path addition) can also be configured by path switching or path change. For example, the current UE is in a single connection (direct) connection communication mode, and then the UE receives configuration information from the base station, in which the UE is instructed to perform path switching or path change (path switch). When the UE is in a single connection (direct connection), or when the UE is not configured with a non-direct connection, when the UE receives such configuration information for path switching or path change, it can be considered that the base station has added a non-direct path for the UE, that is, a non-direct connection path is added. Or the indication of the path change further indicates whether the UE is changed to the indicated non-direct path, or a non-direct connection path is added to the existing direct connection, so as to be configured into a multi-connection working mode. Therefore, the configuration information for adding a non-direct connection path in this article can be independent configuration information, or it can be the configuration information of reusing the existing path change, and the same effect can be achieved. These configuration information can be carried in the RRC reconfiguration message and sent from the base station to the UE.

[0066] In this article, direct connection and direct path can be used interchangeably; indirect connection, indirect connection, relay path and indirect path can be used interchangeably.

[0067] In this document, "working in multipath mode" and "configured with multipath" are interchangeable.

[0068] In this article, multi-path communication can also be replaced by multi-connection (multi-connection, multiple connections, multi-link, multiple links) communication.

[0069] Near field communication between UEs (UE to UE communication, U2U communication)

[0070] UE and UE can be wirelessly connected through near field communication to realize data or signaling transmission. The near field communication method mentioned in this article mainly refers to the sidelink connection, and it can also be a WIFI connection, or other connection methods. The reference point based on the sidelink connection between UE and UE is called PC5, so the sidelink-based connection between UEs can be called PC5 connection. In this article, the sidelink connection (SL link) can be replaced with the PC5 connection (PC5 link). Such a PC5 connection can be identified by a pair of Layer-2 IDs, usually including a source layer 2 identifier (Source Layer-2 ID) and a destination layer 2 identifier (DestinationLayer-2 ID). Such a PC5 connection can be referred to as a (Destination) PC5 connection, a sidelink connection, etc. for or corresponding to a certain destination.

[0071] UE-to-Network relay (U2N relay)

[0072] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing UE-to-Network relay. Figure 2 As shown, the left side is the remote UE, the middle is the relay UE, and the right side is the network. The remote UE and the relay UE can be connected through the aforementioned PC5 interface, or WIFI or other connection methods. In this article, PC5 connection is mainly used as an example. Among them, the relay UE and the network can be connected through the Uu port. The relay UE relays and forwards the signaling and data between the remote UE and the network / base station.

[0073] Uu interface

[0074] Wireless communication interface between UE and base station. UE can use E-UTRAN to communicate with eNB on Uu interface. UE can also use NR to communicate with gNB on Uu interface.

[0075] SL BSR MAC CE

[0076] The SL BSR MAC CE is a buffer report of the SL link sent by the UE to the base station through the Uu interface. The SL BSR MAC CE contains at least the following fields:

[0077] -Destination Index: used to identify the address, indicating the address to which the reported SL BSR belongs or the address information associated with the reported SL BSR. Its value starts from 0, and the corresponding values ​​are from low to high according to the order of the SL address information in the sl-TxResourceReqList, sl-TxResourceReqListDisc and sl-TxResourceReqListCommRelay cells. For example, when the Destination Index value is 0, it corresponds to the SL address information arranged in the first position in the sl-TxResourceReqList cell; when the Destination Index value is 1, it corresponds to the SL address information arranged in the second position in the sl-TxResourceReqList cell, and so on. If the UE does not report the information element sl-TxResourceReqList and the information element sl-TxResourceReqListDisc, and only reports the information element sl-TxResourceReqListCommRelay, then when the Destination Index value is 0, it corresponds to the SL address information arranged in the first position in the information element sl-TxResourceReqListCommRelay; when the Destination Index value is 1, it corresponds to the SL address information arranged in the second position in the information element sl-TxResourceReqListCommRelay, and so on.

[0078] - Logical Channel Group Identity (LCG ID): The LCG to which the reported SL BSR belongs.

[0079] - Buffer Size: Indicates the total amount of data that can be obtained

[0080] In an embodiment of the present invention, a processing method performed by a UE during communication between the UE and a base station based on a multipath communication manner is provided, including:

[0081] Step 1: The UE receives an RRC reconfiguration message carrying configuration information of the indirect path from the base station, where the configuration information at least includes a UE identifier of a target UE for the indirect path;

[0082] Step 2: The UE starts to establish a connection with the target UE when the connection with the target UE is not established;

[0083] Step three: The UE sends an NR side link UE information message to the base station. In the NR side link UE information message, the UE sets the information in the sl-DestinationIdentity element to the UE identifier of the target UE.

[0084] According to the above processing method, the base station can clearly report the address information associated with the SL BSR MACCE in a multi-path working mode, so that resources can be properly allocated in the network and the utilization efficiency of resources can be improved.

[0085] The following specific embodiments are given to illustrate the treatment method of the present invention. In addition, the following embodiments are only examples and are not intended to limit the present invention.

[0086] Example 1

[0087] Hereinafter, Example 1 of the present invention will be described in detail. Figure 3 1 is a flow chart showing a method performed by a user equipment UE according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. Figure 3 As shown, this embodiment 1 may include the following steps:

[0088] Step 101: The UE receives an RRC reconfiguration message (RRC Reconfiguration message) from the base station, in which the UE is instructed to add a connection path. The base station may indicate by carrying the configuration information of the indirect path in the reconfiguration message (for example, contained in the information element sl-IndirectPathAddChange). The configuration information at least includes the UE identity (target Relay UE-Identity) of the target UE for the indirect path, where the UE identity can be represented by address information (destination). The target UE here is a relay UE, and the configuration information may also include configuration information of the physical layer / MAC layer / SL RLC channel or radio bearer, etc.

[0089] Step 102: After receiving the above RRC reconfiguration message, the UE can start to establish a connection with the relay UE. Here, taking the establishment of a PC5 connection as an example, after the UE receives the configuration information of adding the connection path, the UE establishes a PC5 connection (PC5 link) with the target relay UE. If the UE has established a connection with the relay UE before receiving the above RRC configuration information, this step can be skipped.

[0090] Step 103: After the UE is configured with the aforementioned indirect path configuration information, that is, the sl-IndirectPathAddChange information element is configured, the UE sends a NR sidelink UE information message (SidelinkUEInformationNRMessage) to the base station. In this message, the UE sets the information in the sl-DestinationIdentity information element to the target Relay UE-Identity received in step 101.

[0091] The information element sl-DestinationIdentity may be the sl-DestinationIdentity included in the existing information element sl-TxResourceReqListCommRelay, or the sl-DestinationIdentity included in the existing information element sl-TxResourceReqList. Alternatively, a new information element sl-TxResourceReqIndirect may be defined for an indirect path, and the information element sl-DestinationIdentity may be included in this information element. The UE may include the information element sl-TxResourceReqIndirect in the NR sidelink UE information (SidelinkUEInformationNR Message) message sent to the base station, and then set the information in the information element sl-DestinationIdentity included in the sl-TxResourceReqIndirect to the target Relay UE-Identity received in step 101, or may set it to other identification information corresponding to the Relay UE.

[0092] Step 104: In addition, when the SL BSR is triggered, the UE may send a SL BSR MAC CE to the base station. The Destination Index included in the SLBSR MAC CE corresponds to the address information in the information elements sl-TxResourceReqList, sl-TxResourceReqListCommRelay and sl-TxResourceReqIndirect. Since the aforementioned target Relay UE-Identity may be included in one of the above information elements, the base station may confirm whether the reported SL BSR MAC CE is associated with the relay UE according to the DestinationIndex.

[0093] Example 2

[0094] Step 201: The UE receives an RRC reconfiguration message (RRC Reconfiguration message) from the base station, in which the UE is instructed to add a connection path. The base station may indicate this by carrying configuration information of the indirect path in the reconfiguration message (for example, contained in the information element sl-IndirectPathAddChange). The configuration information at least includes the UE identity (target Relay UE-Identity) of the target UE for the indirect path, where the UE identity may be represented by address information (destination). The target UE here is a relay UE, and the configuration information may also include configuration information of the physical layer / MAC layer / SL RLC channel or radio bearer, etc.

[0095] Step 202: After receiving the above RRC reconfiguration message, the UE can start to establish a connection with the relay UE. Here, taking the establishment of a PC5 connection as an example, after the UE receives the above configuration information for adding a connection path, the UE establishes a PC5 connection (PC5 link) with the target relay UE. If the UE has established a connection with the relay UE before receiving the above RRC configuration information, this step can be skipped.

[0096] Step 203: On the UE side, the SL BSR is triggered. The UE may trigger the SL BSR in the following situations:

[0097] In case 1, the MAC entity of the UE can obtain the SL data of any logical channel in the logical channel group associated with a certain address (SL data, for a logical channel which belongs to an LCG of a Destination, becomes available to the MAC entity):

[0098] The logical channel to which such SL data belongs has a higher priority than the logical channels to which other available SL data belongs;

[0099] Or there is no SL data available for this address before this.

[0100] Case 2: The timer sl-retxBSR-Timer expires and at least one logical channel still contains SL data to be sent. This timer is used to control the retransmission of SL BSR MAC CE. When the UE obtains uplink resources to send SL BSR MAC CE, the UE will start or restart this timer;

[0101] Case 3: The timer sl-periodicBSR-Timer times out. This timer is used to control the periodic transmission of SL BSR MAC CE. When the UE obtains uplink resources to send SL BSR MAC CE, the UE will start or restart this timer.

[0102] In the above case or other cases, the UE triggers a SL BSR.

[0103] When the UE obtains UL-SCH resources for new transmission, and this or these UL-SCH resources can accommodate SL BSR MAC CE, the UE calls or instructs or performs a multiplexing and combining process to generate SL BSR MAC CE. The generated SL BSR MAC CE can be one or more, depending on the number of addresses associated with the SL BSRs that need to be reported and the size of the available UL-SCH resources.

[0104] In the generated SL-BSR MAC CE, in one case, if the address associated with the MAC CE is the address of a relay UE, that is, the relay UE on the indirect path configured by the UE in step 202, then the UE can set the Destination Index in the SLBSR MAC CE to a special value:

[0105] For example, if the value of Destination Index is represented by 5 bits, the UE can set the value of Destination Index to '11111' to indicate that the SL BSR MAC CE is associated with the aforementioned relay UE. That is, after the UE is configured with the aforementioned indirect path configuration information, that is, when the information element sl-IndirectPathAddChange is configured, if the generated SL BSR MAC CE is associated with the UE identity or UE address (Destination) of the target UE for the indirect path in the configuration information, then the UE sets the value of Destination Index in the SL BSR MACCE to '11111'.

[0106] In other cases, for example, the UE is not configured with an indirect path, or the generated SL BSR MAC CE is not associated with the relay UE of the indirect path, then the value of the Destination Index corresponds to the address information in the information elements sl-TxResourceReqList and sl-TxResourceReqListCommRelay.

[0107] The UE then sends the above SL BSR MAC CE on the available UL-SCH resources.

[0108] As a supplement, after receiving the aforementioned SL BSR MAC CE, if the Destination Index value is '11111', the base station can confirm that the reported SL BSR MAC CE is associated with the relay UE.

[0109] Figure 5 It is a brief structural block diagram of the user equipment involved in the present invention.

[0110] like Figure 5 As shown, the user equipment 500 includes at least a processor 501 and a memory 502. The processor 501 may include, for example, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, an embedded processor, etc. The memory 502 may include, for example, a volatile memory (such as a random access memory RAM), a hard disk drive (HDD), a non-volatile memory (such as a flash memory), or other memory systems, etc. The memory 502 stores program instructions. When the instructions are executed by the processor 501, one or more steps of the processing method of the UE disclosed in the present invention may be executed.

[0111] The method and the related equipment of the present disclosure have been described above in conjunction with the preferred embodiments. It can be understood by those skilled in the art that the method shown above is only exemplary, and the embodiments described above can be combined with each other without contradiction. The method of the present invention is not limited to the steps and sequence shown above.

[0112] The user equipment shown above may include more modules, for example, modules that can be developed or developed in the future and can be used for base stations, MMEs, or UEs, etc. The various identifiers shown above are only exemplary and not restrictive, and the present disclosure is not limited to the specific information elements used as examples of these identifiers. Those skilled in the art may make many changes and modifications based on the teachings of the illustrated embodiments.

[0113] It should be understood that the above embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented by software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. For example, the various components inside the base station and user equipment in the above embodiments can be implemented by a variety of devices, including but not limited to: analog circuit devices, digital circuit devices, digital signal processing (DSP) circuits, programmable processors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (CPLDs), and the like.

[0114] In addition, the program running on the device according to the present invention can be a program that enables a computer to implement the functions of the embodiments of the present invention by controlling a central processing unit (CPU). The program or the information processed by the program can be temporarily stored in a volatile memory (such as a random access memory RAM), a hard disk drive (HDD), a non-volatile memory (such as a flash memory), or other memory systems.

[0115] The program for realizing the functions of various embodiments of the present invention can be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium. The corresponding functions can be realized by making a computer system read the program recorded on the recording medium and executing these programs. The so-called "computer system" herein can be a computer system embedded in the device, and can include an operating system or hardware (such as a peripheral device). "Computer-readable recording medium" can be a semiconductor recording medium, an optical recording medium, a magnetic recording medium, a recording medium of a short-term dynamic storage program, or any other recording medium that is computer-readable.

[0116] The various features or functional modules of the devices used in the above embodiments can be implemented or executed by circuits (e.g., single-chip or multi-chip integrated circuits). Circuits designed to perform the functions described in this specification may include general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination of the above devices. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, or any existing processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The above circuits may be digital circuits or analog circuits. In the case where new integrated circuit technologies have emerged to replace existing integrated circuits due to advances in semiconductor technology, one or more embodiments of the present invention may also be implemented using these new integrated circuit technologies.

[0117] In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments. Although various examples of the embodiments have been described, the present invention is not limited thereto. Fixed or non-mobile electronic devices installed indoors or outdoors can be used as terminal devices or communication devices, such as AV equipment, kitchen equipment, cleaning equipment, air conditioners, office equipment, vending machines, and other household appliances.

[0118] As mentioned above, the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the specific structure is not limited to the above embodiments, and the present invention also includes any design changes that do not deviate from the main purpose of the present invention. In addition, the present invention can be modified in various ways within the scope of the claims, and the embodiments obtained by appropriately combining the technical means disclosed in different embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention. In addition, the components with the same effect described in the above embodiments can be replaced with each other.

Claims

1. A method performed by a user equipment UE, performed during a communication process between the UE and a base station based on a multipath communication mode, comprising: The UE receives an RRC reconfiguration message carrying configuration information of an indirect path from a base station, where the configuration information at least includes a UE identifier of a target UE for the indirect path; The UE, when not having established a connection with the target UE, initiates establishing a connection with the target UE; The UE sends an NR side link UE information message to the base station, in which the UE sets the information in the information element sl-DestinationIdentity to the UE identifier of the target UE.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The information element sl-DestinationIdentity is included in any one of the information element sl-TxResourceReqListCommRelay, the information element sl-TxResourceReqList, and the newly defined information element sl-TxResourceReqIndirect for an indirect path.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein: When the side link buffer status report SL BSR is triggered, the UE sends a SL BSR MAC CE to the base station, and the Destination Index included in the SL BSR MAC CE corresponds to the address information in the information elements sl-TxResourceReqListCommRelay, sl-TxResourceReqList and sl-TxResourceReqIndirect.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: The UE triggers a SL BSR in any of the following situations: The MAC entity of the UE can obtain the SL data of any logical channel in the logical channel group associated with a certain address; The timer for controlling the retransmission of the SL BSR MAC CE expires and at least one logical channel still contains SL data to be sent; The timer used to control the periodic transmission of the SL BSR MAC CE expires.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein: The UE generates a SL BSR MAC CE when obtaining a UL-SCH resource for new transmission and the UL-SCH resource can accommodate the SL BSR MAC CE.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein: The UE invokes or instructs or performs a multiplexing and combining process to generate a SL BSR MAC CE.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein: The UE generates one or more SL BSRMAC CEs according to the address to be reported and the size of available UL-SCH resources.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein: In a case where the address associated with the generated SL-BSR MAC CE is the target UE, the UE sets the DestinationIndex in the SL BSR MAC CE to a special value.

9. The method according to claim 5, wherein: The UE sends the SL BSR MAC CE on available UL-SCH resources.

10. A user equipment, comprising: processor; as well as Memory, which stores instructions, Wherein, the above instructions, when executed by the above processor, execute the method described in any one of claims 1 to 9.

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